Klotz said lab accidents like those described by Adamovicz are unavoidable. He isn’t greatly concerned about the diseases being studied at MU, because they aren’t easily transmissible. Anthrax for example, can’t be transmitted easily unless it’s weaponized.

A larger concern for him is the release of a bird flu, Ebola or Marburg virus.

No matter how technologically advanced a lab is, human error can thwart the technology, Klotz said. He cited one incident at a Biosafety Level 4 lab in which a researcher wearing shorts spilled some of the 1918 flu virus. People at those labs are supposed to be fully clothed in protective garb.

The researcher was quarantined, and the National Institutes of Health “really wrote the riot act” for that lab, Klotz said. Read more